Is anyone updating the Museum?

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Guest Nathanael

Guest Nathanael

It looks like the collection stops short in 2010, and it also looks like there is no longer an effort being made to collect the special/Thanksgiving timetables.

I understand that this sort of thing happens -- the original person who was driving force behind the site gets busy, etc. What can we do to make this a more sustainable operation, help keep the Timetable Museum curated? There've been seven entire system timetables since the last update, plus several interim updates.

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Hello, Nathanael. You pose a valid question, but first, I encourage you to join the community as a Member. You are clearly invested in contributing and you seem to enjoy the camaraderie here, so registration seems like a sensible way to express your commitment to the group and this site.

Anyway, the most recent system timetables have been less of a priority to upload because they have been published in digital form from the start (PDF on Amtrak.com), and many people download a copy for their own reference when they are posted. I realize that they are hard to find when they become obsolete, because the links get removed. At some point, I'll get copies of those PDFs and link to them directly, instead of going through the time-consuming process of adapting them to the page-by-page format the site uses for the earlier editions.

Although "seven entire" timetables may be missing, I think the site -- even if never updated again -- still provides a valuable reference with 39 years of material that is difficult to find elsewhere in one place. That is why I continue to support the site on an ongoing basis even if my updates are delayed. I spend about 200 hours a month developing other Amtrak projects for customer benefit, so I assure you it's not out of lack of interest... and the site is plenty sustainable as long as my bank account continues to auto-pay the hosting bill.

Best wishes,

Anthony

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Thank you for your commitment to the timetable archive. I understand it's a volunteer effort and it's very appreciated. I have several years of PDF timetables that I keep for my personal archive and retrieve them from amtrak.com when new ones are published. If you would like them in the future I am happy to provide them to you or perhaps I can post them on my site & you can put a crosslink.

Regards,

Chris J

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Guest Nathanael

Guest Nathanael

Hello, Nathanael. You pose a valid question, but first, I encourage you to join the community as a Member. You are clearly invested in contributing and you seem to enjoy the camaraderie here, so registration seems like a sensible way to express your commitment to the group and this site.

I'm not giving my birthdate out. Why do you require this for membership?

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Guest Nathanael

Guest Nathanael

I realize that they are hard to find when they become obsolete, because the links get removed. At some point, I'll get copies of those PDFs and link to them directly,

I have several years of PDF timetables that I keep for my personal archive and retrieve them from amtrak.com when new ones are published. If you would like them in the future I am happy to provide them to you or perhaps I can post them on my site & you can put a crosslink.

This sounds like it might be an excellent solution! :-)

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Hello, Nathanael. You pose a valid question, but first, I encourage you to join the community as a Member. You are clearly invested in contributing and you seem to enjoy the camaraderie here, so registration seems like a sensible way to express your commitment to the group and this site.

I'm not giving my birthdate out. Why do you require this for membership?

I require nothing -- I don't run this site anymore. But I think what you're asking is why the site asks for a birthdate. It's to comply with COPPA which requires that a member be at least 13 years old to join. So, if you are at least 13 years of age, feel free to give a false birthdate that meets the criteria!

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Hello, Nathanael. You pose a valid question, but first, I encourage you to join the community as a Member. You are clearly invested in contributing and you seem to enjoy the camaraderie here, so registration seems like a sensible way to express your commitment to the group and this site.

I'm not giving my birthdate out. Why do you require this for membership?

I require nothing -- I don't run this site anymore. But I think what you're asking is why the site asks for a birthdate. It's to comply with COPPA which requires that a member be at least 13 years old to join. So, if you are at least 13 years of age, feel free to give a false birthdate that meets the criteria!

And that birthdate that is required for the Children's Internet Protection Act isn't stored anyplace. Based upon the answer, that question simply points one either to either the registration form or a form that a parent must fill out before the under 13 minor can join the forum.

During registration there is an opportunity to supply a birth date that all members can see; but many do leave the field blank and we do NOT require anyone to fill in that field. There are many members who don't have that field filled in; some who do; and some who only put a month & day, but no year.

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Guest Nathanael

Guest Nathanael

And that birthdate that is required for the Children's Internet Protection Act isn't stored anyplace. Based upon the answer, that question simply points one either to either the registration form or a form that a parent must fill out before the under 13 minor can join the forum.

During registration there is an opportunity to supply a birth date that all members can see; but many do leave the field blank and we do NOT require anyone to fill in that field. There are many members who don't have that field filled in; some who do; and some who only put a month & day, but no year.

OK. There's a LOT of security issues related to releasing birthdates; because waaay too many organizations use them for "security". I'll put in a false birthdate. :-)

I will note that I tend to get banned from forums because I lose my temper at stupid idiots. I wish there was some way to say "Feel free to moderate my comments." ;-)

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And that birthdate that is required for the Children's Internet Protection Act isn't stored anyplace. Based upon the answer, that question simply points one either to either the registration form or a form that a parent must fill out before the under 13 minor can join the forum.

During registration there is an opportunity to supply a birth date that all members can see; but many do leave the field blank and we do NOT require anyone to fill in that field. There are many members who don't have that field filled in; some who do; and some who only put a month & day, but no year.

I will note that I tend to get banned from forums because I lose my temper at stupid idiots. I wish there was some way to say "Feel free to moderate my comments." ;-)

There is, you can put that in your profile so it shows on every post you make.

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I will note that I tend to get banned from forums because I lose my temper at stupid idiots. I wish there was some way to say "Feel free to moderate my comments." ;-)

So then let me please tell you that in the dozen plus years that I've been on the staff here between Anthony & I there have probably been about 2 people that were banned for content. We've of course banned a few who turned out to be spammers; but as more than a few current members could tell you if they choose, I worked hard with them to avoid banning them.

As long as you're willing to accept that your posts could be altered, something that already happens to you even now as a guest, you'll be just fine! And you are always more than welcome to contact me to discuss why something got changed. Can't promise that I will reverse things; but I will always discuss things.

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As others have said, you would certainly be welcome as a member. I know that I, for one, would be happy to have you on here.

As to the timetables, one thing to remember is that changes to them in the last few years have been minimal. The biggest changes I can recall are a shift in the NB Silver Meteor of 15-30 minutes earlier (depending on your stop) and a similar shift in the Adirondack (regarding padding around Albany). Other than that, the system has mostly been static with the exception of two trains being extended (to Norfolk, VA and Brunswick, ME).

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And that birthdate that is required for the Children's Internet Protection Act isn't stored anyplace. Based upon the answer, that question simply points one either to either the registration form or a form that a parent must fill out before the under 13 minor can join the forum.

During registration there is an opportunity to supply a birth date that all members can see; but many do leave the field blank and we do NOT require anyone to fill in that field. There are many members who don't have that field filled in; some who do; and some who only put a month & day, but no year.

I will note that I tend to get banned from forums because I lose my temper at stupid idiots. I wish there was some way to say "Feel free to moderate my comments." ;-)

There is, you can put that in your profile so it shows on every post you make.

As an example AlanB's says Take care and take trains.. I can't remember all of mine but I know I state on the bottom that my posts are my views and opinions. Which everyone is entitled to! I love hearing others opinions here on AU! It makes me a much better person for listing or in this case reading opinions!

I will note that I tend to get banned from forums because I lose my temper at stupid idiots. I wish there was some way to say "Feel free to moderate my comments." ;-)

So then let me please tell you that in the dozen plus years that I've been on the staff here between Anthony & I there have probably been about 2 people that were banned for content. We've of course banned a few who turned out to be spammers; but as more than a few current members could tell you if they choose, I worked hard with them to avoid banning them.

As long as you're willing to accept that your posts could be altered, something that already happens to you even now as a guest, you'll be just fine! And you are always more than welcome to contact me to discuss why something got changed. Can't promise that I will reverse things; but I will always discuss things.

Alan & Anthony did a great job while Anthony was the leader of the forum! I've had the pleasure of meeting both Alan and Anthony and both are great guys who enjoy sharing information with other AU users! I've learned a ton from Alan and Anthony has given me insight on careers at Amtrak!

Now Alan and Tom run the show and they wouldn't ban someone without giving a very good explanation! Tom is also a great guy! I had the pleasure of meeting him at the gathering in Philly a few years ago. But they always have an open mind on things and are always looking for ways to improve AU! As a member I've met many folks who I consider good friends! Charlie, Penny, Dave, Alan, Dick, Kirk, the 2 Joes, and more! We here at AU are a small family if you'd ask me. We yell at each other and later apologize.

I also encourage you to Join AU!

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So, I'm trying to do some analysis of changes in Michigan service from 2010-2014 due to track decay, construction, and holidays.... how about getting those timetables archived? :-P PDFs would be excellent. The holiday & construction timetables are of particular interest to me, though I would want the regular timetables for comparison too.

Edited September 12, 2014 by neroden

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I wrote a program that notifies me when a new timetable is published to Amtrak.com and when I get a notification I go and retrieve it. I have most timetables in PDF format going back to 2010. It would be a lot of work to post each of the separate route timetables, but I really would like to have each of the National timetables available for easy download. I think maintaining a historical archive is very important and I'm willing to help.

Who can I contact to see about keeping www.timetables.org updated? That website says to make correspondence/questions here.

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Frankly, it looks like nobody is currently willing to update timetables.org.

I'm super busy for the next few months, but if you haven't gotten any feedback from the timetables.org owner by mid-April 2015, contact me and I'll look into setting up another website to archive the newer timetables.

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That works, or I may start posting the National train timetables that I've archived from a link on my status maps database site. I would like them to be available for all to access.

If you've got your own website already, just go ahead and do that, it would be greatly appreciated. I'd suggest putting up the holiday timetables you have if you've got those, they're very interesting data as well.

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That works, or I may start posting the National train timetables that I've archived from a link on my status maps database site. I would like them to be available for all to access.

If you've got your own website already, just go ahead and do that, it would be greatly appreciated. I'd suggest putting up the holiday timetables you have if you've got those, they're very interesting data as well.

These are the PDF timetables I have been keeping since 2009; I'm sure I missed a few over the years but the collection is fairly complete. It includes the Holidays and Specials that I have. I will keep it updated to the best of my ability.

I have a link to all this Amtrak data from my personal website, juckins.net

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Someone someday will thank you for what you did. My brother died suddenly last September, leaving a townhouse full of... stuff. Some valuable, some not so much, and a whole lot really not valuable at all. It's rather disheartening to go through it all, especially the box marked, "Sort through 1993."

It's also a good idea to have a will, but that's an issue for another day.